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Uh oh, just when all seemed well with my new bike it turns out the engine may have been flooded. The petcock was in PRI instead of On or RES and I noticed fuel leaking from carburetor 1 throat leading to the engine.

I tried to turn on the engine and it wouldn't start but it turns. I took out the spark plugs and noticed that plug 1 was smelling of gas and when I turned the engine while the plugs were out piston 1 was a bit wet and would kick up some oil that smelled a bit of gas out of the plug hole.

Before I go installing new plugs how do I resolve the problem of this possible flooding? Also fuel is leaking very slowly through carb 1 throat and I'm not sure if I should drain it.

It shouldn't be a problem I'm hoping as I was able ride it home Tues. and left it sitting on Wed. Not sure if the guy who sold me the bike did it on purpose.

I'm not sure if it can be adjusted or needs to be replaced but fuel leaking from the carbs can sometimes happen of the float valve is not closing properly.

bandit600 wrote:I'm not sure if it can be adjusted or needs to be replaced but fuel leaking from the carbs can sometimes happen of the float valve is not closing properly.

Cylinder side, the boot closer to the engine, is leaking and very slowly. Not sure if it has anything to do with the flooded engine (if that's the case) or a bad seal and the boot needs replacing. I heard floats would not close if it gets flooded.

As you can tell, I'm not used to things like this because non of my bikes got flooded or had a slow leak (the Vulcan would get some black film on one carb though).

I'm probably a 2 on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being I can change my oil and 5 being I've rebuilt an entire engine so take my suggestions with a grain of salt...

Not sure how to dry / clean out the cyclinders besides take the spark plug out and turn the engine over a few times by rolling the bike around in gear maybe?

The next thing I would try is to pull the fuel lines to the carbs, check to see that the bowls aren't too full and see if the bike runs okay. If it does then it's a fuel line to carb issue probably via the float valve. If there are still problems then it's beyond my carb knowledge. I would think that clogged jets or torn diaphram would result in under fueling instead of overfueling...

... maybe ?

This depends on if you have a vacuum operated petcock or not. In a vacuum operated the Prime bypasses the vacuum and lets the bowls fill. On yours it sounds like you need to rebuild the carbs and check the float valve needles.

A less-than-perfect needle to seat seal can leak if the petcock is left in PRIME position. Sounds like one of yours is doing just that. Drying off and cleaning the plugs is all you should need to do to 'dry' the cylinder out. Spin it over on the starter with the plugs out to expel any liquid they may have collected.... and do all of this with the petcock in RUN position.

You also need to make sure none of that fuel leaked past the rings into the crankcase. Does the crankcase oil smell of gas? Is the oil level higher than it was? If so, you should change the oil (and filter for peace of mind) before re-starting the bike.

Keep the petcock off of PRIME unless you want to refill the carbs after completely draining them (to work on them or something like that). RUN or ON or whatever your bike reads is what you always want it set to. If it doesn't deliver fuel in that position, then the diaphragm in the petcock is probably shot and needs replacing.

Wrider wrote:This depends on if you have a vacuum operated petcock or not. In a vacuum operated the Prime bypasses the vacuum and lets the bowls fill. On yours it sounds like you need to rebuild the carbs and check the float valve needles.

It's vacuum operated. Looks like I'm gonna need to drain the carbs, change the oil and filter and install the new spark plugs. I bought the bike on Tuesday and the guy must've put the petcock on PRIME for some reason because I never touched it and discovered it on Wednesday.

Only Piston 1 is wet and it's only leaking from carb 1. I can't smell a strong scent of gasoline from the oil filler plug but I can smell some gasoline in the Piston/ Spark Plug 1 area and no where else. The bike is also leaning on it's side stand.

I'm usually good at fixing my bikes but only with a shop manual which has been quite hard to track down for my year and make. It's like 1984 never existed.